Majid Al Futtaim to go ahead with UAE mall development

Dubai: Majid Al Futtaim, a Dubai-based conglomerate, will not take a pause on new mall development in the UAE, even as the retail sector experiences one of its worst years for growth, according to its senior executive.

“There’s a 45 per cent increase in overall growth in the market between [2015] and 2020. There’s 17 billion consumer dollars [coming] into the market over that period … and then there’s the general population growth,” said Kim McInnes, chief executive of Majid Al Futtaim-Shopping Malls, on the sidelines of the World Retail Congress in Dubai on Wednesday.

McInnes said the company will continue to build new shopping malls and expand existing ones over the next five years.

“We’re looking throughout the Middle East and North Africa, primarily in the Gulf states,” he said, including Oman and the UAE. He, however, declined to name the exact locations.

The growth of the retail market in the UAE has slowed down in the past year due to the weakening of some currencies against the US dollar, which the UAE dirham is pegged to, resulting in fewer Russian and European buyers.

Overall spend

Majid Al Futtaim said last year that it plans to double the size of its business over the next five years. It announced in February 2015 that it will build two malls in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Mall of Saudi and City Centre Ishbiliyah.

“There is a lot of growth from a population perspective and from a tourist perspective in terms of the overall spend. There is also not a lot of competition in Saudi. The shopping mall industry is relatively less structured and competitive than in Dubai,” McInnes said, adding that there are no plans currently to build additional malls in Saudi Arabia.

The company is also growing its presence in Egypt, having said last year that it will boost investment there from 18 billion Egyptian pounds (Dh7.5 billion) to 22.5 billion Egyptian pounds. It is building Mall of Egypt, which is set to open on September 28 this year, and plans to start construction of City Centre Almaza this year. “The site is excavated and some pilings are in,” McInnes said.